All over the world, cows have been demonstrating very peculiar eating habits that no one bothered to notice, until now. Thanks to google earth, a curious scientists in Germany, Dr. Sebine Begall, it has been discovered that cows all eat in formation; all cows eat together periodically during the day, all facing north or south. Never were the cows seen facing eat or west when they were eating.
The scientists also looked at deer and sheep and realized that for the most part, they all eat in this bizarre, but organized way. It was believed to be caused by the animals innate sensitivity to the earths poles, and the magnetic pull occurring in the earth in accordance to the poles. But why would they care? It was thought that the animals did this because of their over sensitivity to the earths rotations and magnetic pull, but also to the sun and to the weather. Many have thought that the animals will stand a certain way because of the sun; the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, so in the life a lazy cow, the easiest way to stand would be facing north or south to avoid the glaring direct sun, altogether. However, the sun hypothesis has been ruled as a secondary cause for the way that the cattle stand and not a primary cause. The primary cause is still the magnetic pull within the earth (north and south) that is effecting the way that the cattle, and other animals, will stand during times of grazing.
The same researchers also looked at body positions of over 2,000 different deer all across the Czech Republic and found that 2/3rds of deer stood facing north during grazing periods, and only 1/3rd faced south.
"That might be due to some anti-predatory behavior" ~ Dr. Begall
Next time that you are driving cross country or bored on google-earth, check out the way that cattle are grazing, and see if you can notice this bizarre, north-south standing behavior.
Mitchell, E. (2008, August 25). Cattle shown to align north-south. BBC News, Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7575459.stm
I was definitely intrigued by this post and therefore wanted to look further into the concept of being attracted to the magnetic poles of the Earth. I found that it was already well known and researched that bird, bees and fish use the Earth’s magnetic fields for orientation and migration. Another thing that I found interesting is that bats use a “magnetic compass” to help with their sense of direction. Another little interesting factoid I stumbled upon about cows is just how social they are. They all sit down before it rains and they huddle together in a circle formation during blizzards.
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